UC Berkeley Press Release

Three faculty members elected to National Academy of Sciences

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 29 April 2008

BERKELEY – Three faculty members of the University of California, Berkeley, are among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the nation's most prestigious societies of scholars engaged in science and engineering research.

Election to the academy, announced today (Tuesday, April 29), is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

The new members are Michael Botchan, professor of molecular and cell biology; Jasper Rine, professor of molecular and cell biology, director of UC Berkeley's Center for Computational Biology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor; and Nobel laureate George Smoot, professor of physics. Smoot holds a joint appointment as a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The members were elected "in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research," according to the academy.

With this year's election, UC Berkeley is now home to 132 members of the academy, which is regularly called upon by government leaders to advise upon matters of science and technology.

The NAS was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln. There are now 2,041 active members and 397 foreign associates in the academy.